The Artistic Seminar for Seniors: A Whole New World

So while on the topic of trompe l'oeil, here's another artist who works in that style: John Pugh.

Art Imitating Life Imitating Art Imitating Life at the Cafe Trompe L'oeil

Unlike Conklin, Pugh does work in the large scale, and often on walls. Instead of necessarily having the purpose of giving the audience something to relate to, he gives the audience a new world or experience to see.

Bishop Mural Society

Pugh says that "Once captivated by the illusion, the viewer is lured to cross an artistic threshold and thus seduced into exploring the concept of the piece"
(http://twistedsifter.com/2010/04/trompe-loeil-incredible-3d-wall-art-by-john-pugh/).

This is so true! Once I look at the pieces and realize they are not real, I try to look at all the little details-- seeing where reality ends and the painting begins, and seeing how he's achieved certain views. Just like with Conklin, and really an other artist who works in the trompe l'eoil style, Pugh puts so much focus on the details, not just the marks and textures of things, but also exactly how to portray them so as to get the perspective accurate and uniform.

The paintings make the used-to-be-plain-and-boring walls SO much more interesting! Shoot! I would much rather walk down the street, to wherever I'm going, and see those paintings instead of the plain walls. Then again, if I did see those paintings, I would probably be late to wherever I was originally going!

Another interesting thing that Pugh mentions about his work is, "Artists must be continually aware that their work can serve as a bridge between diverse cultural backgrounds" (http://twistedsifter.com/2010/04/trompe-loeil-incredible-3d-wall-art-by-john-pugh/). That's interesting! I guess if art is a way of telling a story, and art can be a pretty universal language, then it could share a story about other cultures to people who would not have learned about them before. So what story can I tell others through my work?